Rookie Immanuel Quickley .. Starter? or Bench player?

Here's a Tweet ....

Here's the total number of minutes played during the 4th quarter over the Knicks past four games: from Payton & Quickley
Immanuel Quickley: 42 mins played
Elf Payton: 2 mins played

Payton hasn't seen the floor in the fourth quarter in three of NY's past four games, while IQ leads the team in 4Q mins

There has been lots of talk about Immanuel Quickley replacing Elf Payton in the starting lineup—and understandably so...
However, over the Knicks last 4 games, IQ is averaging 24.8 minutes per game vs. 22.3 for Payton.
IQ still seeing plenty of playing time and seems comfortable w/ 2nd unit

In the beginning of the season I rather have Payton or Rivers as the Knicks starter PG. Why?
Playing with the 1st unit in the 4th Q with the starters fits well for the rookie IQ and the Knicks team.
I see IQ deferring to Randle and Barret and not being an aggressive scorer as a starter.
At this point, he is going to get more shots with the second unit and they need his scoring there. I’m not saying IQ can’t or shouldn’t start, it's just like Thibs said, the fit is better with the second unit.
What we really need is an upgrade to Payton. By switching PG starter in Rivers or Payton depending on opponents?
I thought Frank ending performance last season got him Payton's starter job.
Did Frank really missed his opportunity by not being able to stay healthy this season. No! Frank was DNP throughout the preseason games for Payton & DSJ.
Frank first time receiving playing-time this season came off the bench to help the 2nd unit Knicks get their first win over the Bucks.
Quickley's creative performance has been best coming off the bench to give the 2nd unit lineup energy and scoring.

I say start IQ, and let Toppin take on larger offensive role with the second unit.

It appears Knox now joins Frank & DSJ on the bench...

? ?Obviously (Sunday) was the first time we had the entire roster available, so right now we?re locked into a 10-man rotation; he?s situational for now,? Tom Thibodeau said before Monday?s loss to Chicago. ?But that doesn?t mean it won?t change. His shooting is a big part of what we need. So we want him to continue to work. He?s an important part of our team.?


In the first 13 games of the season, Knox hit 44 percent of his 3-point attempts. Since then, he?s made just 21 percent of his 3-point attempts; overall, he shot 19 percent in that span.

Thibodeau said Knox will not spend time in the G League.

?He?s still very much situational and things can change quickly based on matchups, fouls, injuries, illness, whatever you might have ? he would be the next guy in,? Thibodeau said.?

mafra said:

I say start IQ, and let Toppin take on larger offensive role with the second unit.

It appears Knox now joins Frank & DSJ on the bench...

? ?Obviously (Sunday) was the first time we had the entire roster available, so right now we?re locked into a 10-man rotation; he?s situational for now,? Tom Thibodeau said before Monday?s loss to Chicago. ?But that doesn?t mean it won?t change. His shooting is a big part of what we need. So we want him to continue to work. He?s an important part of our team.?


In the first 13 games of the season, Knox hit 44 percent of his 3-point attempts. Since then, he?s made just 21 percent of his 3-point attempts; overall, he shot 19 percent in that span.

Thibodeau said Knox will not spend time in the G League.

?He?s still very much situational and things can change quickly based on matchups, fouls, injuries, illness, whatever you might have ? he would be the next guy in,? Thibodeau said.?

Click to expand...

It should apply to every player on a 9-13 squad. This is why Thibs is starting to get on my nerves and why fans wore out on him in Chicago and Minnesota. He only likes certain types of players and very rigid with coaching up a diverse roster. Yes it's obvious IQ should start, Thibs is just being defiant against public opinion and media pressure as a sign of bullying him to do his job

Here are two reason Quickley does not belong in the Knicks starter lineup are ....
1) To much Iso-Randle
2) And to much Iso Barrett
Both players grade a C- minus on the defensive-end, plus on offense the two players has a serious bad habit of dribbling the ball as soon as they touch it. They look to shoot or pass the ball after they dribble the ball. Which makes their team-b.ball IQ very low. We could thank ....
Mills/Perry/Fiz/Miller for giving Randle & Barrett the Green-Light to do whatever they want on offense throughout last season.

1) Randle's one on one skills at scoring are up 65% however, Randle's poor dribbling-skills and telegraph-passes has lead to 4 turn-overs a game last season. Last night vs the Bulls Randle had 5 turnovers, and a crucial game turn-over at crunch time.

2) RJ Barrett has decent dribbling-skills, and great athletic hops.
What Barrett doesn't have are speed and quickness to finish around the basket.
Barrett has no creative offense, nor any hustle-offense, nor has Barrett tried to improve his poor passing-skills in his 2nd season in the league.

This is just generally the wrong question to be asked. Quickley has been playing the meaningful minutes recently so I'm fine with him not starting.

The problem is Payton is still getting minutes, in general. Dude is total trash and is an absolute destroyer of spacing. Those minutes either need to go to Frank, or Quickley needs to get 30+ minutes and a combo of RJ/Burks can run the backup PG. Or we go out and trade for another PG. We CANNOT continue with this dude getting minutes.

Bullock also 100% needs to be exiled from our long term plans. Those two are absolutely suffocating the offense

I'm hoping Quickley stay in the 2nd unit lineup to build chemistry in our young-core (Frank, Knox, Obi) players in this short season.
Thibs has to get strong-minded and take Rivers out of the rotation for Frank. And Rivers has to wait till Payton have one of his 6 or 7 straight bad games before being replace by Rivers.
Quickley & Frank's dribble & passing skills could control the ball to get scoring out of their young-core teammates.

The Payton, Barrett, Bullock, Randle, and MitchRob lineup are run by the leadership of Randle, Payton, and Barrett. Their offensive chemistry are ISO, and the majority of ball-movement are to hit the man on the 3-ball line. That's Dolan's fault! In the past decade the majority of decent FA never sign on as Knicks. So the FA we do get to sign 80% of the Teams in the NBA, would not give them (Bullock or Payton or Burks or Noel or Rivers) a starter-position.
And the same could be said about our all-star playing Randle, when you look at his past 3 yr track record. Yes, Randle will win the Most Improve Player" if he keep playing consistent the rest of the season.

Bill Pidto
@BillPidto

If @elfrid can play like this more consistently there will no longer be much debate about who should start at PG for @nyknicks Coach Thibs likes the balance with @IQ_GodSon on second unit

@MSGNetworks @KnicksMSGN
6:28 PM ? Feb 3, 2021

Mentioned it was a matter of time before Thibs would have to see what a tandem of IQ and RJ looked like on the court together and now Alan Hahn thinks Thibs has to see how the trio of JR RJ and IQ look based on their +/- in 114 minutes of playing together.

Wsup Tiger .... Good Points .. 90s Knickfan .. tweet ..
Where does our bench scoring come from if Quickley starts? And is it better for the team for Quickley to spend the first six minutes of the game as the third option on the court versus spending nearly all of his minutes as the first or second option?

We need coach Thibs to think how well IQ complimentary performance as a 1 or 2 option has improve a lot of the bench-players performance .. Plus the Knicks will need 10 well performing players in their rotation in the next 2 weeks to challenge for a play-off spot. We should let IQ build on his offensive leadership among some of our decent bench-players in his rookie season.
Randle & RJ been calling shots on who starts since Fiz/Miller/and Thibs .. Payton & Randle were NO Pelicans FA we signed. The two players has formed a bond on the Knicks in 2 seasons.

The team need all Quickley's energy in a game to put together a 2nd unit lineup that could perform well for 21 minute a game. This mean Thibs has to stretch the rotation of players in every game to 10 players receiving double-digits of playing-time. We only have two players on this team that deserve 30 or 32 minute per game .. Randle & Quickley !!!